The Choctaw Club, a Democratic political organization, began after the end of the Civil War, during Reconstruction. Until 1877, the city of New Orleans was still under federal rule, and Orleanians were anxious to run their city themselves. Local voters…
“We don’t march.” Benny Harrell insisted. “Or stroll.” Nor do they wander, or meander…and they never rush. They have been doing this annually for 60 years this Mardi Gras “We walk,” Harrell explained. The speed? “Half Fast.” He admits the…
Tinsel and stardust, dancing fairies and clever mice, memorable music: all adding up to a massive annual Yuletide fundraiser for art in New Orleans……… of course, it’s The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet – the tale of a young girl who…
Hot and sweet: who doesn’t love the melt-in-your-mouth goodness of a classic Krispy Kreme doughnut? In this political season, one thing all campaign headquarters of every party will have in common: the ubiquitous box(es) of Krispy Kreme product. What fuels…
“No matter what I say I am – that I am. I shall be what it suits me to be. “ Clio Dulaine, heroine of the 1941 blockbuster novel “Saratoga Trunk,” is the beautiful daughter of a free woman of…
New Orleanians take pride in their city’s food: home-cooked, created by Creole chefs, beloved by gourmets worldwide. Yet, New Orleans has also contributed to some decidedly American eating habits. In fact, the earliest American fast food innovation had an Orleanian…
Nineteenth-century New Orleanians shared our need for clean clothes. A note in the Louisiana Advertiser newspaper of December 5, 1826 offered a much-needed service: “To hire: a good Creole washer-woman, cook, etc. speaks French and a little English. Enquire…
Henry Clay Warmoth does not figure largely in our state’s memory, but the past year was the 150th anniversary of his 1868 election as Governor during Reconstruction (1865 to 1877.) That era, when federal troops were still in the state…
The favorite Saint of the Christmas season is a year-round resident of our city, with two churches, icons and stained glass windows honoring him. “Well, you don’t really see another Saint pictured with a money bag…” Deacon Gregory Haddad,…
Environmental fiascos are not unusual around New Orleans. After all, it is in a state that measures its vanishing wetlands in football-fields-per-month. The current expected crisis is not the encroaching Gulf of Mexico: it’s quietly flowing from the east:…
According to The New Orleans Item, November 12, 1904, the Ringling Brothers Circus’s “menagerie is the finest in the country. It contains the only rhinoceros with any traveling show; two giraffes, a real baby elephant, a hippopotamus, …and a nursery…
In the 1840s it wasn’t unusual for New Orleans musicians to perform in benefit concerts for themselves. What was odd about the April 20, 1841 event at the St. Louis Ballroom was that the pianist was all of 11: and…
Over the centuries, this city has raised the staging of funerals to an art form. And, not even a corpse is required. New Orleans, then a Spanish colony, once held a funeral when the King of Spain died. Charles III…
African music left a lasting imprint on the New Orleans sound, and was certainly heard here in the past. In 1819, Benjamin Latrobe, architect of the United States Capitol and designer of New Orleans’ first waterworks, walked down St. Peter…
Saratoga Trunk, a 1945 film, partly set in New Orleans, was based on a novel by Edna Ferber. Ferber, a careful researcher for her historical fiction, had as her heroine “Clio Dulaine,” the daughter of a white father and a…
Ballet in New Orleans
The French Market in the 1880s: Wild Ducks Were Regularly Sold in the Stalls John James Audubon spent part of the winter of 1821 in New Orleans painting portraits and giving art lessons in the French Quarter, but mainly…
A New Orleans Essential Since 1805
The history of a former Carnival krewe
Christmas romping through the years
Ballooning in New Orleans
When Ferries Were A Fleet
Home for the generations
Bayou Road Renaissance
Haven for Art
Tailoring in New Orleans
Entreprises ayant une influence française
The record shop hop
Hot art in New Orleans
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